We all have dark data

Smartphones allow us to take amazing images really quickly. So to get the perfect shot we often take a dozen of identical images. But who deletes the photos which did not turn out so well? The unused images tend to stay on our phones and are also backed up to a cloud service for backup. Companies have huge data centres where this data is stored indefinitely. In order to hold this data, huge amounts of electricity and water are needed for storage.

This is an example of dark data.

This is not just the case for selfies, but also for emails and files we create and no longer use. Globally, most firms do not do anything about the data they collect. It just sits in computer servers somewhere. It has been estimated that the world generates almost hundred trillion gigabytes of data each year. Most of this is dark data, which has a greater carbon footprint than the aviation industry.

Here is how you can help!

 

Pictures

For pictures, only keep the good shot. Delete the ones that did not turn out well. This also saves you cloud storage.

Emails

Delete old emails. We all get many emails every day, some important, some not so important. Delete the ones you no longer need to free-up storage space in your inbox, your computer and on global servers.

Files

Delete files you no longer need. Take a moment to delete files from your computer that you no longer need. You can do this on personal devices and at work.